different between sack vs tack

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /sæk/
• Rhymes: -æk
• Homophones: sac, SAC

Etymology 1

From Middle English sak (“bag, sackcloth”), from Old English sacc (“sack, bag”) and sæcc (“sackcloth, sacking”); both from Proto-West Germanic *sakku, from late Proto-Germanic *sakkuz (“sack”), borrowed from Latin saccus (“large bag”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (sákkos, “bag of coarse cloth”), from Semitic, possibly Phoenician.

Cognate with Dutch zak, German Sack, Swedish säck, Hebrew ????? (?aq, “sack, sackcloth”), Aramaic ???????, Classical Syriac ????, Ge'ez ?? (?ä?), Akkadian ???????? (saqqu), Egyptian s?g?. Doublet of sac.

?erný and Forbes suggest the word was originally Egyptian, a nominal derivative of s?q (“to gather or put together”) that also yielded Coptic ??? (sok, “sackcloth”) and was borrowed into Greek perhaps by way of a Semitic intermediary. However, Vycichl and Hoch reject this idea, noting that such an originally Egyptian word would be expected to yield Hebrew *??? rather than ?????. Instead, they posit that the Coptic and Greek words are both borrowed from Semitic, with the Coptic word perhaps developing via Egyptian s?g?.

Noun

sack (plural sacks)

1. A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with handles used at a supermarket, a grocery sack; or, a small bag for small items, a satchel.
2. The amount a sack holds; also, an archaic or historical measure of varying capacity, depending on commodity type and according to local usage; an old English measure of weight, usually of wool, equal to 13 stone (182 pounds), or in other sources, 26 stone (364 pounds).
   • The American sack of salt is 215 pounds; the sack of wheat, two bushels. — McElrath.
   • 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Vol. 27, page 202

     Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6 1/2 tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. [...] It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.
3. (uncountable) The plunder and pillaging of a captured town or city.

   The sack of Rome.

4. (uncountable) Loot or booty obtained by pillage.
5. (American football) A successful tackle of the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. See verb sense⁴ below.
6. (baseball) One of the square bases anchored at first base, second base, or third base.

   He twisted his ankle sliding into the sack at second.

7. (informal) Dismissal from employment, or discharge from a position, usually as give (someone) the sack or get the sack. See verb sense⁵ below.

   The boss is gonna give her the sack today.

   He got the sack for being late all the time.

8. (colloquial, US) Bed; usually as hit the sack or in the sack. See also sack out.
9. (dated) (also sacque) A kind of loose-fitting gown or dress with sleeves which hangs from the shoulders, such as a gown with a Watteau back or sack-back, fashionable in the late 17th to 18th century; or, formerly, a loose-fitting hip-length jacket, cloak or cape.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book IV, chapter vii, Google Books

     Molly, therefore, having dressed herself out in this sack, with a new laced cap, and some other ornaments which Tom had given her, repairs to church with her fan in her hand the very next Sunday.

   • 1780, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 151:

     Her Dress, too, was of the same cast, a thin muslin short sacque and Coat lined throughout with Pink, – a modesty bit – and something of a very short cloak half concealed about half of her old wrinkled Neck […].

   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson 1986, p. 13:

     This lady's interesting figure, on her wedding-day, was attired in a sacque and petticoat of the most expensive brocaded white silk, resembling net-work, enriched with small flowers […] .

10. (dated) A sack coat; a kind of coat worn by men, and extending from top to bottom without a cross seam.
11. (vulgar, slang) The scrotum.

    He got passed the ball, but it hit him in the sack.

Synonyms

• (bag): bag, tote, poke (obsolete)
• (booty obtained by pillage): See Thesaurus:booty
• (informal: dismissal from employment): the axe, pink slip, the boot, the chop, the elbow, one's cards, the old heave-ho
• (colloquial: bed): hay, rack
• (vulgar slang: scrotum): See Thesaurus:scrotum

Hyponyms

• (bag): bindle

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (sakku)

Translations

Verb

sack (third-person singular simple present sacks, present participle sacking, simple past and past participle sacked)

1. To put in a sack or sacks.

   Help me sack the groceries.

   • 1903, Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Chapter VII,

     The gold was sacked in moose-hide bags, fifty pounds to the bag […]

2. To bear or carry in a sack upon the back or the shoulders.
3. To plunder or pillage, especially after capture; to obtain spoils of war from.

   The barbarians sacked Rome.

   • 1898, Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, The Iliad, Book IX,

     It [a lyre] was part of the spoils which he had taken when he sacked the city of Eetion […]

4. (American football) To tackle the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage, especially before he is able to throw a pass.
   • 1995, John Crumpacker and Gwen Knapp, "Sack-happy defensive line stuns Dolphins", SFGate.com, November 21,

     On third down, the rejuvenated Rickey Jackson stormed in over All-Pro left tackle Richmond Webb to sack Marino yet again for a 2-yard loss.

5. (informal) To discharge from a job or position; to fire.

   He was sacked last September.

   • 1999, "Russian media mogul dismisses Yeltsin's bid to sack him", CNN.com, March 5,

     […] Boris Berezovsky on Friday dismissed President Boris Yeltsin's move to sack him from his post as executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States, […]

Synonyms

• (plunder, pillage): loot, ransack
• (to remove someone from a job): can, dismiss, fire, lay off, let go, terminate, make redundant, give the axe, give the boot, give (someone) their cards, give the chop, give the elbow, give the old heave-ho, See also: Thesaurus:lay off
• (slang: to hit in the groin): rack

Derived terms

• sackable
• sackage
• sacker
• sack out
• sack up

Translations

Etymology 2

From earlier (wyne) seck from Middle French (vin (“wine”)) sec (“dry”), from Latin siccus (“dry”)

Noun

sack (countable and uncountable, plural sacks)

2. (dated) A variety of light-colored dry wine from Spain or the Canary Islands; also, any strong white wine from southern Europe; sherry.

   • Will't please your lordship drink a cup of sack? ...I ne'er drank sack in my life...

   • Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack...let a cup of sack be my poison...Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it?

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2

     How didst thou 'scape? How cam'st thou hither? swear / by this bottle how thou cam'st hither—I escaped upon / a butt of sack, which the sailors heaved overboard, by / this bottle!

   • The New Sporting Magazine (volume 15, page 23)

     The vesper bell had rung its parting note; the domini were mostly caged in comfortable quarters, discussing the merits of old port; and the merry student had closed his oak, to consecrate the night to friendship, sack, and claret.

Derived terms

• sack-whey

See also

• claret, hock, tent

Etymology 3

Noun

sack (plural sacks)

1. Dated form of sac (“pouch in a plant or animal”).
   • 1938, The Microscope (volumes 1-2, page 56)

     Sometimes fishes are born that have rudimentary yolk sacks. Such young are born prematurely.

Etymology 4

Verb

sack (third-person singular simple present sacks, present participle sacking, simple past and past participle sacked)

1. Alternative spelling of sac (“sacrifice”)

Noun

sack (plural sacks)

1. Alternative spelling of sac (“sacrifice”)

See also

• sack on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Sack in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

References

• Forbes, Robert Jacobus (1955) Studies in Ancient Technology, vol. IV, p. 66
• ?erný, Jaroslav (1976) Coptic Etymological Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ?ISBN, page 149
• Vycichl, Werner (1983) Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Copte, Leuven: Peeters, ?ISBN, page 186
• Hoch, James E. (1994) Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, Princeton: Princeton University Press, ?ISBN, page 269

Anagrams

• ACKs, SKCA, acks, cask

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse sokkr, from Latin soccus (“slipper”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (súkkhos, “a kind of shoe”), probably from Phrygian or another language from Asia Minor.

Pronunciation

• (masc.; str.) IPA^(key): /?s?kh?/

  Rhymes: -??k?

• (masc. def.; str.) IPA^(key): /?s?t??h?en/
• (masc., fem.; wk.) IPA^(key): /²s?kh?/

  Rhymes: -??k?

Noun

sack m or f

1. Sock.

Derived terms

• tåsack

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /tæk/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /tak/
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English tak, takke (“hook; staple; nail”), from Old Northern French taque (“nail, pin, peg”), probably from a Germanic source, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *takkô (“tip; point; protrusion; prong; tine; jag; spike; twig”), from Proto-Indo-European *dHg?n-, *déHg?- (“to pinch; tear; rip; fray”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Takke (“bough; branch; twig”), West Frisian takke (“branch”), tûk (“branch, smart, sharp”), Dutch tak (“twig; branch; limb”), German Zacke (“jag; prong; spike; tooth; peak”).

Noun

tack (countable and uncountable, plural tacks)

1. A small nail with a flat head.
   • 2012, July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track

     A tough test for even the strongest climber, it was new to the Tour de France this year, but its debut will be remembered for the wrong reasons after one of those spectators scattered carpet tacks on the road and induced around 30 punctures among the group of riders including Bradley Wiggins, the Tour's overall leader, and his chief rivals.

2. A thumbtack.
3. (sewing) A loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth.
4. (nautical) The lower corner on the leading edge of a sail relative to the direction of the wind.
5. (nautical) A course or heading that enables a sailing vessel to head upwind. See also reach, gybe.
6. A direction or course of action, especially a new one.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion song 11 p. 172[1]:

     So stoutly held to tack by those near North-wales men;

   • 1922 , James Joyce, Ulysses, chapter V:^[2]

     Maud Gonne’s letter about taking them off O’Connell street at night: disgrace to our Irish capital. Griffith’s paper is on the same tack now: an army rotten with venereal disease: overseas or halfseasover empire.

   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 637:

     I thought that my refusing Barnard would alienate Botha, and decided that such a tack was too risky.

7. (nautical) The maneuver by which a sailing vessel turns its bow through the wind so that the wind changes from one side to the other.
8. (nautical) The distance a sailing vessel runs between these maneuvers when working to windward; a board.
9. (nautical) A rope used to hold in place the foremost lower corners of the courses when the vessel is close-hauled; also, a rope employed to pull the lower corner of a studding sail to the boom.
10. Any of the various equipment and accessories worn by horses in the course of their use as domesticated animals. Saddles, stirrups, bridles, halters, reins, bits, harnesses, martingales, and breastplates are all forms of horse tack.
11. (manufacturing, construction, chemistry) The stickiness of a compound, related to its cohesive and adhesive properties.

    The laminate adhesive has very aggressive tack and is hard to move once in place.

12. Food generally; fare, especially of the bread kind.

    hardtack; soft tack

    • 1913, D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers

      But if a woman's got nothing but her fair fame to feed on, why, it's thin tack, and a donkey would die of it!

13. That which is attached; a supplement; an appendix.

    • Some tacks had been made to money bills in King Charles's time.
14. (law, Scotland) A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire; a lease.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Burrill to this entry?)

    • 1885: The Crofter in History by Lord Colin Campbell

      In the Breadalbane papers, for example, there is a "tack" which was given by Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy to his "weil belouit" servant John M'Conoquhy V'Gregour, in the year 1530.

15. (obsolete) Confidence; reliance.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (nautical maneuver): coming about

Hyponyms

• (nail-like object for affixing thin things): thumbtack

Derived terms

• Blu-Tack
• hardtack
• thumbtack

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English takken (“to attach; nail”), from the noun (see above).

Verb

tack (third-person singular simple present tacks, present participle tacking, simple past and past participle tacked)

1. To nail with a tack (small nail with a flat head).
3. To sew/stich with a tack (loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth).
4. (nautical) To maneuver a sailing vessel so that its bow turns through the wind, i.e. the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other.
5. To add something as an extra item.

   to tack (something) onto (something)

6. Often paired with "up", to place the tack on a horse.

Synonyms

• (nautical: to turn the bow through the wind): to change tack

Antonyms

• (nautical: to turn the stern through the wind): to wear

Translations

Related terms

• tacky

See also

• Tack (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Blu-Tack

Etymology 3

From an old or dialectal form of French tache. See techy.

Noun

tack (plural tacks)

1. A stain; a tache.
2. (obsolete) A peculiar flavour or taint.

   a musty tack

Etymology 4

Noun

tack (uncountable)

1. (colloquial) That which is tacky; something cheap and gaudy.

References

• tack in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• tack at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• ATCK, Tkac

Scots

Noun

tack (plural tacks)

1. Lease, tenancy
2. The period of such a contract
3. A leasehold; especially, the tenure of a land or a farm.

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse þ?kk, from Proto-Germanic *þank?, *þankaz. Cognates include English thank, German Dank, Danish tak and Icelandic and Norwegian takk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tak/

Interjection

tack

1. thanks, please

Noun

tack n

1. a thank; a word which shows gratitude

Declension